The field of the invention is polyether ester amides.
The state of the art of preparing polyether ester amides may be ascertained by reference to British Pat. Nos. 1,211,118 and 1,473,972; West German Published Application No. 2,658,714 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,428,710; 3,489,816; 3,944,629; 3,993,709; and 4,207,410, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein.
Polyamide plastics, additives useful therein, their properties and methods of processing, machining and finishing are disclosed in Kirk-Othmer, "Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology," 2nd Ed. (1968) Vol. 16, pp. 88-105, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein.
The preparation of polyether ester amides, also referred to as block polyamide polyether esters, is known.
The following procedures are manufacturing processes of the prior art; the polycondensation of a polyamide forming monomer, for instance lactams, omega-aminocarboxylic acids, or equivalent amounts of dicarboxylic acids and diamines with a polyether having end located amino groups in the presence of dicarboxylic acids or with a polyether having end located carboxyl groups in the presence of diamines; and polycondensation of a polyether with polyamide oligomers including either carboxyl end groups or amine end groups. These prior art processes are disclosed in West German Published Application No. 2,658,714; British Pat. Nos. 1,211,118 and 1,473,972 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,428,710; 3,489,816 and 4,207,410.
It is known that polyethers and polyamides are mutually incompatible. Due to the heterogeneity of the reaction components, polycondensation takes place very slowly. Furthermore, only molded materials having a high extract content and relatively low molecular weights are obtained, so that inadequate stability is incurred in the molded articles made by injection molding and especially by the extrusion process.
The U.S. patent application of Mumcu et al, filed July 10, 1980 and having Ser. No. 169,111 discloses a process which starts from polyamides bearing end groups and from polyethers bearing end groups, wherein, with the introduction of a pressurized stage under water vapor pressure, homogenization is achieved and hence polyether ester amides of high molecular weight are obtained in shorter reaction times and these polyether ester amides are advantageously processed into molded bodies.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,207,410 also discloses a process which starts with the monomeric polyamide forming compounds, dicarboxylic acids and polyether glycols while using pressure in the presence of water, to achieve polyether ester amides of high molecular weights.
It is furthermore known to prepare polyether ester amides in the absence of gauge pressure. The lactam rings are opened in the presence of dicarboxylic acids and diol or oligo-ether diols or oligo-ether-esters, as disclosed in the published text of German patent application No. P 11 24, 39 c-10; West German Published Application No. 21 35 770, in the example, and East German Patent 87,888. The products obtained according to this method, however, contain excessive amounts of unconverted lactam monomer despite a long condensation time of up to 24 hours. Their molecular masses are so low that they are not suitable for preparing extrusion molded articles.